Tsunami dock removed from Washington coast

FORKS, Wash. (AP) - The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the last of a 65-foot long dock that traveled across the ocean after the Japanese tsunami has been removed from a remote beach on Washington's Olympic Peninsula.

The Undersea Co. of Port Townsend began the work March 17, cutting up and airlifting out pieces. Company President John Nesset says it was like opening a 185-ton concrete package filled with foam packing peanuts.

The job was finished Thursday.

Japan paid most of the $628,000 removal cost. A serial number showed the dock came from Aomori Prefecture during the March 2011 tsunami. A similar dock was removed last summer from a beach at Newport, Ore.

The Washington dock landed within a wilderness portion of Olympic National Park and also within the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.

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